Archives

All posts for the month November, 2015

This blog post comes to us from Eliza Redgold, author, academic and unashamed romantic. Her new novel Naked: A Novel of Lady Godivawas released by St Martin’s Press in 2015.

Q. What is it like to be both a romance novelist and an academic?

A. As both an author and an academic, I’m often asked how the two parts of my life fit together. It’s a tricky balance, but it works!

I keep my fiction and non-fiction/academic writing identities separate by using two versions of my name. NAKED: A Novel of Lady Godiva has just been released in the US by St Martin’s Press. It’s a work of fiction, under my pen name Eliza Redgold (based on the Gaelic meaning of my name). I’ve also written non-fiction pieces about Godiva under my full name Dr Elizabeth Reid Boyd, including a travel article published by The Australian newspaper about my trip to Coventry (the home of Lady Godiva). I also recently presented an academic paper about Godiva at the Popular/American Culture Association Conference in the US.

The first time I presented about Lady Godiva to my academic colleagues I was rather nervous. I’m thrilled to say my research on Godiva has been very well received. Romance is also growing as an area of academic study – there’s a whole new interdisciplinary field emerging that’s been dubbed ‘Love Studies’. I’m proud to be part of this area of research and a romance writer too – even though as a genre romance fiction can be quite revealing. (But if you can’t handle exposure – don’t call your book NAKED!)

My pen name was actually inspired by my university students. In one of my classes I asked my students to explore the meaning of their names. There’s a lot of cultural heritage locked up in our names. One of the students put up their hand and asked the meaning of mine. I translated it from Gaelic and said ‘When I write novels I’ll be Eliza Redgold.’

It’s dangerous to make declarations in front of a crowded lecture hall – they come true!

Eliza Redgold will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Eliza Redgold is based upon the old, Gaelic meaning of her name, Dr Elizabeth Reid Boyd. English folklore has it that if you help a fairy, you will be rewarded with red gold. She has presented academic papers on women and romance and is a contributor to the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Romance Fiction. She was born in Irvine, Scotland on Marymass Day and currently lives in Australia.

We know her name. We know of her naked ride. We don’t know her true story.
We all know the legend of Lady Godiva, who famously rode naked through the streets of Coventry, covered only by her long, flowing hair. So the story goes, she begged her husband Lord Leofric of Mercia to lift a high tax on her people, who would starve if forced to pay. Lord Leofric demanded a forfeit: that Godiva ride naked on horseback through the town. There are various endings to Godiva’s ride, that all the people of Coventry closed their doors and refused to look upon their liege lady (except for ‘peeping Tom’) and that her husband, in remorse, lifted the tax. Naked is an original version of Godiva’s tale with a twist that may be closer to the truth: by the end of his life Leofric had fallen deeply in love with Lady Godiva. A tale of legendary courage and extraordinary passion, Naked brings an epic story new voice.

Having read and enjoyed previous Pennyroyal Green novels by Julie Anne Long, I was predisposed to like The Legend of Lyon Redmond. Confusion ensued.

The main plot was engaging: offspring of the Eversea and Redmond clans, who have been feuding since 1066, fell headlong in love five years ago. High drama, threats from overbearing father, and fear of losing all one has ever known threw a major wrench into the works.

Now, Olivia is about to marry a more suitable candidate but has never gotten over Lyon. We see why in a series of flashbacks to how it all began. Plus that pesky ballad extolling him and those lurid illustrations are everywhere she goes.

The descriptions of a soulmate connection are lyrical. All that breathlessness rings true. The HEA comes about in an inventive way.

What confused me though was the epilogue. Suddenly, we witness Olivia’s modern day descendant meeting the descendant of a character from one of the other Pennyroyal books. Lots and lots of exposition of what ever happened to all and sundry residents of the town followed. Maybe this was Long’s way of wrapping up this series? Personally, I could have done without it.

Nothing says Christmas like New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde and Twilight, TX, and now Lori returns to Twilight for a brand new heartwarming holiday tale. The matchmaking members of the Cookie Club are up to their old tricks again!

Christmas in Twilight, Texas, is all merriment and mistletoe. The Cookie Club is whipping up their most festive sweets, the townspeople are scrambling to get their holiday shopping done, and Joe-a hometown guy with a restless heart-is dreaming about the woman he wants to kiss most…

…And who happens to be staying at his sister’s place over the holidays, while Joe’s sister is away. But Joe isn’t quite sure he wants to be a living Christmas present to runaway law student Gabi Preston.

Joe thinks the sassy sweetheart he nicknames “Trouble” won’t inconvenience anything but his healthy sex drive. But when he discovers the reasons Gabi escaped from her life, he aches to give her everything she’s never had. As the magic of the season draws them together, the gift of love is the only one worth giving…

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Lori Wilde has sold seventy-eight works of fiction to four major New York Publishing houses. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and a certificate in forensic nursing from Kaplan University. She is a member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

Her first NYT bestseller, the third book in her Twilight, Texas series, The First Love Cookie Club has been optioned for a television movie. The town of Granbury, Texas, upon which her fictional town of Twilight, Texas is loosely based, honors Lori with an annual Twilight, Texas weekend each Christmas. http://www.twilighttexas.com

A popular writing instructor, Lori is a two time RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. She’s won the Colorado Award of Excellence, the Wisconsin Write Touch Award, The Golden Quill, the Lories, and The More than Magic. Her books have been translated into 27 languages and excerpted in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Complete Woman, and Quick and Simple magazines. She lives in Texas with her husband, Bill, and her two New American Shepherds.

What foul devilry is this? They told her he was dead. After six long years without a word, her knight falls onto his knees and sings poetry. Then he denies their son? Heed this well. She’s no longer an innocent who’ll giggle and tarry on his every word. The sharp edge of her tongue and knife is the only welcome he’ll get. She’ll not marry him. Besides, the pain would be too much to bear should he ever leave again.

Her attitude is beyond understanding. What voice did he have? The king commanded and he obeyed. Regardless of her hatred, the Templar knight weds. This time she will travel with him and he will win back her favor. It’s a long road from London to Hadrian’s Wall. Evil deeds weave a plot laced with castles, kidnappings, and missives. Will the treacherous journey split them asunder forever? Mayhap only in heaven will he rekindle the passion they once shared.​

To celebrate the release of How to Marry Your Wife, the author is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky reader!

Excerpt:

Prologue

England, near London Towne

Year of our Lord 1276

Behind them, massive columns stood tall as their only chaperones in the ancient Roman bathhouse. Peepers croaked, night birds lamented, and water gurgled as it cascaded down from each of the three tiers. Sir Thomas led her deeper into the shadows made by blue moonlight. Tiny waves of light reflected off the pools and onto his beautiful Norman features.

The dark centers of his eyes widened as he brushed his lips over hers. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“You don’t want me?” Merry’s lower lip quivered. Thick black hair caressed the tender places between her fingers when she reached her hands to the back of his head. Warmth spread from where their lower halves met and she kissed him with all her being.

Her Templar knight groaned. “I’ve promised your liege that I’ll not lay with you until we’re wed. If we continue down this road, my honor will be questioned.”

Letting go of his silky wet locks, she reached into her purse and waved six colorful ribbons of yarn in front of his nose. “But I brought these.”

He leaned over to where he’d placed his sword, belt, and boots and came up with similar lengths of wool. “As did I.”

Her cheeks ached with the wide grin she sent his way. “Anon. Let’s do it.”

Rough palms cupped her face as the man she adored bore a hole into her soul with his gaze. “Lass, ’tis serious. We’ll be hand-fasted. Are you sure you want this?”

She covered his hands with her own and fell into the depths of those magnificent eyes. The drum in her chest beat faster and her lips parted. “I’m six and ten seasons. I know my own mind.”

Her first book, ‘How to Train Your Knight’, won Romance Writers of America coveted Molly and Show me the Sparks Contests, and placed in four others.
Truly remarkable, considering she’s only been writing for three years.

Growing up in Vermont, she loved to make up stories. Crayons fought each other over size and placement in their cardboard box and imaginary friends crowded the house. Her brother often complained. “Tell her no one’s here, Mother.”.

Her career paths have varied. She’s been a librarian, a classical clarinetist wanna-be, recording studio engineer, broadcast electronics repairman, and now she architects software programs.

She lives in Bergen County, NJ with her life-long hero and their two cats. Her two girls are grown but ever supportive. You go Mom!

Victoria Carson never expected love. An American heiress and graduate of Lady Grantham’s finishing school, she’s been groomed since birth to marry an English title–the grander the better. So when the man chosen for her, the forbidding Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her on sight, she understands that it can’t matter. Love can have no place in this arrangement.

Andrew Hargrave has little use for his title, and even less for his cold, disinterested parents. Determined to make his own way, he’s devoted to his life in Italy, working as an archaeologist. Until the collapse of his family’s fortune drags him back to England, to a marriage he never wanted and a woman he doesn’t care to know.

Wild attraction is an unwanted complication for them both, though it forms the most fragile of bonds. Their marriage of convenience isn’t so intolerable after all–but it may not be enough when the deception that bound them is finally revealed.

Excerpt:

“Goodnight, Miss Carson.”

“Goodnight, Your Lordship.”

He held onto her hand for a beat too long, that delicious roughness of his palm heating hers. Her stomach erupted in butterflies. Utter romantic nonsense. It was a handshake. She glanced up at his face and their eyes met. The butterflies vanished and her stomach dropped clean to her feet. Her feet were rooted in place, but her body swayed slightly, as if being tugged toward him by an invisible thread. A muscle in his cheek twitched. Then, to her shock, he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

Her skin warmed beneath his lips and a delicious tingle shot down the back of her neck. It was only a moment, a brush of his lips against her cheek, but it heated her all the way down to the soles of her feet. Well, there was her answer about his touch. That tiny kiss was ricocheting through her body, laying waste to her good sense.

He drew back two scant inches, his eyes meeting hers in the dull gold glow of the gaslight wall sconces behind her. She could feel his breath on her mouth. There was only his beautiful, strong face and those shockingly blue eyes and his lips, which had made her feel so much at the slightest touch. She swayed toward him again. His eyelids lowered, his gaze dropping to her mouth.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Amanda has loved romance since she read that very first Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel at fifteen. After a long detour into a career as a costume designer in theatre, she’s found her way back to romance, this time as a writer.

A native Floridian, Amanda transplanted to New York City many years ago and now considers Brooklyn home, along with her husband, daughter, two cats, and nowhere near enough space.

Are marriage of convenience stories your cup of tea? If so, you will love No Groom at the Inn, a novel by Megan Frampton that she calls number 2.5 in her Dukes Behaving Badly series. Actually, the title is inaccurate. There is a groom at the inn; he just doesn’t know it yet.

Poor Lady Sophronia has been left penniless by her father. He was so busy collecting expensive books and playing erudite word games that he forgot to set money aside for her future. Now she’s on her way to become an unpaid children and chicken keeper for a distant cousin.

Enter James Archer. He needs a fiancée and quick to get his mother and a housepartyful of hopeful misses off his back.

Charmingly, Frampton starts each chapter off with obscure words and their made up and real definitions that underscore what is happening in the plot.

As the holiday season unfolds, so too does the love between this twosome. The plot is short and as sweet as c cup of hot chocolate. Perfect holiday fare.

“Excuse me, miss,” a gentleman said in her ear. She jumped, so lost in her own foolish (fowlish?) thoughts that she hadn’t even noticed him approaching her.

She turned and looked at him, blinking at his splendor. He was tall, taller than her, even, which was a rarity among gentlemen. He was handsome in a dashing rosy-visioned way that made her question just what her imagination was thinking if it had never inserted him—or someone who looked like him–into her dreams.

He had unruly dark brown hair, longer than most gentlemen wore. The ends curled up as though even his hair was irrepressible. His eyes were blue, and even in the dark gloom, she could see they practically twinkled.

As though he and she shared a secret, a lovely, wonderful, delightful secret.

Never mind that all those words were very similar to one another. Her word-specific father would reprimand her—if that gentle soul could reprimand someone, that is—if he heard how cavalierly she was tossing out adjectives that all meant nearly the same thing.

But he wasn’t here, was he, which was why she was here, and now she was about to find out why this other he was here.

Far too many pronouns. Her attention returned to the tall, charming stranger.

Who was talking to her. Waiting for her response, actually, since she had spent a minute or so contemplating his general magnificence. And words, and her father, and whatever other non-chickened thoughts had blessedly crossed her mind.

“Can I help you, sir?” Sophronia asked. He was probably lost on his way to the Handsome Hotel where they only allowed Exceedingly Handsome guests.

That he might think she’d know where the Handsome Hotel was gave her pause. Because she was not handsome, not at all.

But what he said was next was even more unexpected than being asked to provide directions to some establishment where one’s appearance was the only requirement for entry.

“Would you marry me?” he said in a normal tone of voice as though he hadn’t just upended Sophronia’s entire world.

Author Info

Megan Frampton writes historical romance under her own name and romantic women’s fiction as Megan Caldwell. She likes the color black, gin, dark-haired British men, and huge earrings, not in that order. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and son.

Still stinging from her recent divorce, Emily Buzzly heads to majestic Hawaii to soothe her wounds. But once she arrives on Oahu, Emily discovers that a man she assumes is a beach bum is in fact her personal tour guide, hired by her sister. With his long hair and tattoos, Boston Rondibett is everything Emily detests—despite his sun-kissed surfer body. And with her straight-laced, executive persona, Emily is everything Boston rebels against. But both have a lot to learn about making snap judgments…

As it turns out, Boston’s real job, the one he truly cares about, is running his soup kitchen and homeless shelter. Embarrassed by her assumptions, rather than lazy beach days, Emily soon finds herself feeding the hungry, and even involved in the search for an AWOL soldier. And to Boston’s surprise, she’s loving every minute of it—and he’s loving seeing her loosen her chignon and be the admirable, beautiful woman she is. As each works through the challenges of the past, these two very different people just might find their hearts are on the very same page…

Excerpt:

She’d been small there for a minute. He’d acted like an insane person, and Emily had shrunk beneath it. Now, her back straightened, and she came to herself as if suddenly recalling she wasn’t the type to shrink. “Forget it. But at least we’ve discovered one thing we have in common.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t care, either.”

Boston gritted his teeth. He wished she had the stones to yell it and scream it in his face like a mad woman, like Jordan would have. But not Emily, Miss Poised and Proper. Oh, no. She merely said it, flat and without a trace of inflection or emotion.

She stopped when she reached the door and pulled it open to let herself out. “By the way, your deduction is correct. I was with Ryder last night.” He gaped at her. Everything inside seemed to collapse until the air wasn’t filling his lungs completely. With her next words, she both saved and condemned him. “I paid Kale’s debt. You’ll never see Ryder again, and The Canopy is safe.” She searched his face while hers remained passive. “Until you find someone else to rescue, anyway.”

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

A Florida native, Roxanne Smith has called everywhere from Houston to Cheyenne home. Currently residing in Asheville, NC, she’s an avid reader of every genre, a cat lover, pit bull advocate, and semi-geek. She loves video games, Doctor Who, and her dashing husband. Her two kids are the light of her life.